Below he comments:

“I think any future Xbox games we make will have some Natal support. We always want to have something that exploits the unique capabilities of a platform.”

So, ever though he said it will have Natal support, the key word there is some; that means it could be anything from just a mini game to full game control.

If you already have Gears of War 2 (like you should), be sure to check out our Dark Corners DLC review.

“Unreal Tournament is certainly a major long-term priority but we’re planning not to release a major retail game in the series for several years,” Sweeney said. “So we have that effort somewhat on hold while we work on a few other initiatives.”

Sweeney also mentioned that Epic will continue to support the creation of third party mods in the long run, saying that Epic will “open up the engine to more people to use freely and use cool stuff.”

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The free DLC will add new maps, game modes, vehicles and characters, as well as the mutator mentioned in the title.

The new game types are Greed, a “tug of war” team mode game, and Betrayal, a cutthroat style where alliances and teams can shift through a match. The Titan mutator, meanwhile, lets players become a 30 foot tall behemoth in any game mode.

The DLC was released for the PC version earlier this month, leading to a whopping 2000% increase in players.

The “Snowblind map pack”, due out March 31, will offer four winter-themed multiplayer maps: Grind Yard, Under Hill, Courtyard and a remake of Fuel Depot from the original. While no pricing was given, the last pack sold for 800 points ($10).

Meanwhile, the patch will bring a new experience-based ranking system and a variety of fixes on March 24. Hit the jump for full patch notes.

Improvements

• Adds 100 levels of player experience that you can gain based on your score in Public matches. The game still uses Trueskill for matchmaking to find the most competitive matches, but the skill rank is now hidden. The new level of experience appears next to your gamertag, with levels 1 through 99 displayed as numbers and level 100 displayed as an icon. The game normalizes experience based on match type so that players earn an equivalent amount of experience across all modes.
• Adds an experience penalty for players quitting before a match is complete.
• Adds bots automatically to a Public Match if players quit and cause unbalanced teams. This ability has always existed in Private Matches if the bot count is set higher than zero.
• Optimizes playlists to only have two modes per playlist. Ties are decided by random selection.
• Adds map cycling to Private Matches. The first match map is chosen by vote or by host, and when that match is completed, the game transitions automatically to the next match, with the next map selected in alphabetical order.
• Adds the ability for teams to talk to each other between rounds in a Private Match.
• Adds the ability to save Public and Private Horde high scores after each complete wave, in case the host loses connection.
• Makes minor changes to general bandwidth usage.
• Adds region preference to matchmaking.
• Improves standby detection.
• Adds nine new achievements worth 250 points. Progress toward them starts after Title Update 3 is applied. Six of the new achievements require the Snowblind Map Pack, a set of four new maps to be released soon. The nine new achievements:
  • "Rookie Gear" (10 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 5 (Public only).
  • "Seasoned Gear" (20 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 15 (Public only).
  • "Battle-Tested Gear" (30 points): Earn enough multiplayer experience to reach level 25 (Public only).
  • "Battle-Hardened Gear" (50 points): Reach level 50 and play a match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (Public only).
  • "Veteran Gear" (75 points): Reach level 100 and win a match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (Public only).
  • "Never Eat Red Snow" (20 points): Complete waves 1 through 10 on all Snowblind Map Pack maps in Horde (any difficulty).
  • "Icy Dead People" (25 points): Complete waves 1 through 50 on any Snowblind Map Pack map in Horde (any difficulty).
  • "Frigid Body Dynamics" (5 points): Play a multiplayer match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (any mode).
  • "The Weather Outside Is Lethal" (15 points): Win a multiplayer match on each of the four Snowblind Map Pack maps (any mode).

Exploit Fixes

Title Update 3 fixes these possible exploits, where under certain circumstances:

• A player could swap from a pistol to a two-handed weapon during a cover slide and then mantle greater distances.
• Players could kill themselves in Wingman to avoid giving their opponents more points. Now, suicides and team killing will reduce team score.
• A player holding a meatshield could melee through some walls.
• A player could equip a two-handed weapon with a shield using either the Boltok or the Gorgon pistol.
• A player could equip a two-handed weapon with a meatshield using either the Boltok or the Gorgon pistol.
• A player could prevent planted shields from being picked up by other players.
• Players could launch themselves into the air with a smoke grenade while mantling.

General Fixes

Title Update 3 fixes these other issues as well:

• An issue that caused chainsaw interruption when a player is shot to be less reliable in some body positions than in others.
• An issue where a third player could join a Public Wingman party lobby and remove another player from the game.
• An issue in Submission games where occasionally the meatflag would immediately run back to the spawn point after being dropped.
• An issue where players that were knocked down but not out (DBNO) while planting the Boomshield would appear to be standing.
• An elevation-based issue where the detection for a headshot might not align properly with certain character model heads.
• An issue that could cause Wingman teammates to have different character models.
• Additional miscellaneous bug fixes.

Balancing

Title Update 3 makes these balancing changes:

• Reduces stun duration of smoke grenades. Currently, characters always start to get up after 2 seconds.
• Gives melee the same delay after roadie running that shooting received in Title Update 2.
• Removes spawn protection from the Horde in Horde mode.
• Increased the forward angle that triggers chainsaw duels so that players with Lancers equipped won’t be sawn from the side without a duel.
• Reduces the delay before a player can climb up after entering low cover.
• Makes minor changes to weapon spawns on the Subway map to provide greater balance.

CliffyB wasn’t lying when he said they had a long vision for the Gears of War franchise. But just how long would that be? According to Gears of War 2 writer Josh Ortega, Epic has a ‘ten-year-plan’ for their cash cow.

“Gears is long-term. The lancer is the new lightsaber,” he added. This was in response to a question about a potential sequel.

The series has so far seen two blockbuster games, a comic book and a forthcoming live-action film, which the team hopes will be the first in a trilogy.

Ortega also talked about potential DLC for the game, noting that we “won’t be disappointed” when it comes to single-player DLC. Keep your fingers crossed!

Are your guns and armor languishing in the closet? Epic wants you to bring them out as the studio has spilled the beans on a forthcoming major patch for the PC version of Unreal Tournament 3.

Among the major new features will be support for Steam achievements for those who installed the title through Valve’s digital distribution platform. There will be other tweaks and the developer is readying a collection of bonus maps dubbed the Titan Pack, with lead designer Steve Polge saying that it will be “substantially bigger than any bonus pack we’ve released in the past.”

Only Epic knows when the patch and the pack are going to be released.

“Microsoft confirmed to me this afternoon that Gears of War 2 sell-through surpassed 3 million units as of last week,” said Epic Games VP Mark Rein.

The game was released on November 7 and sold over two million units in its opening weekend. It can be noted that the first game has sold 5 million copies. Gears of War 2 is supposedly exclusive to Xbox 360.

Following up on its promise, Epic Games has released an update for Gears of War 2, aimed at helping the current matchmaking issues players are facing.

The patch will be automatically downloaded when players sign on to Xbox Live, with the installation of the patch required to play online.

“In order to get the update out as quickly as possible, we focused just on immediate infrastructure issues and have left any potential gameplay issues for a future update,” wrote senior producer Rod Fergusson on the game’s official forum.

His post carries further details on the changes made.

Titan Studios will continue its work on the quirky strategy game, as well as create original games and provide technical UE3 support to those who work with Epic Games China.

It is the latest investment for Epic, who recently bought a stake in People Can Fly (Painkiller) and acquired Chair Entertainment (Undertow).

If the idea seems odd, keep in mind that Legendary Pictures is helping to finance the Gears of War movie. If these negotiations are real and are successful, it will be the first time that a movie company has

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In fact, I can confirm the existence of the hacked version myself, though the links have gone dead as of the time of this writing. However, it is still available on some bit torrent sites, though you will have to contend with leechers. Even then, you will have the guilty conscience of pirating a game that you should very much buy… and have to deal with modding your Xbox 360 and the possibility that you will get kicked off of Xbox Live.

If you are one of those people, go ahead and download the 6.76GB file. The full game is due out November 7.

Based on these figures alone, Microsoft declared the game to be “poised to become the must-have video game this holiday season.”

The full game is due out exclusively on Xbox 360 on November 7. It features two-person online or offline cooperative story mode, ten-person online multiplayer and more.

“The trial is proceeding,” Dyack said. “We feel really good about our claims, and we’re hopeful that justice will be done. We all feel really strongly that they have defrauded us, and a major portion of the industry.”

The dispute is centered around the studio’s claim that Epic did not deliver promised features in Unreal Engine 3 in order to focus on its own UE3 project – Gears of War.

“The Too Human you see today only really started development when [Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes] was completed,” noted Dyack. “So it’s been a four-year development cycle and it would have been out even quicker, but we had to re-write the engine because of all the Epic stuff.”

The new Epic game is in development for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 by wholly-owned subsidiary People Can Fly, the studio behind action-shooter Painkiller; they also worked on the PC port of Gears of War.

“Epic is excited to work with EA Partners to launch our next big IP on the global stage,” said Epic Games VP Mark Rein. “EA Partners gives independent developers like Epic the muscle of a global publisher like EA, along with the focus and flexibility of a smaller team committed to working with our individual needs.”

Meanwhile, Grasshopper’s game will be an action-horror title in development for PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. It is being directed by Goichi Suda (No More Heroes) and will be produced by Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil); it is being developed in collaboration with Q Entertainment, the studio behind Lumines and Rez.

The EA Partners program already has quite a few big name developers under its belt, including id Software, Valve and Harmonix.